This invention relates to a distillation system and process, and more particuarly, to a distillation system and process for recovering vaporizable components from an aqueous medium.
In commercial distillation processes, i.e., stripping, fractionation and rectification processes, steam is used to vaporize and expel volatile components from water containing other elements, salts or compounds. A substantial quantity of steam is consumed in such conventional processes, increasing the operating costs of such processes. In a basic distillation process, for example, in a stripping system, the industry has continued to seek further optimization in terms of lower energy requirements, lower capital expenditures, i.e., reduction in the number of pieces and size of required apparatuses and a reduction of solution flow rates while maintaining high throughput
It is desired in this invention to provide an improvement in a process for removing vaporizable components from an aqueous medium containing a mixture of vaporizable components and other salts, elements and compounds whereby steam consumption is minimized.